3.156 They Knew Not The Lord

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Appearances are an interesting thing, aren't they? They could be set up to make everything look wonderful and great. They also could make something look awful and not desirable in any way, shape or form.

What role do appearances play in our lives when it comes to living the gospel of Jesus Christ? That's the question that I'm stewing on as I read inside of 1 Samuel. We are reading this week Ruth and 1 Samuel chapters 1 through 7.

We're going to stay inside of chapter 2. We were there yesterday, we're going to stay inside of it today. And we're going to be here tomorrow because chapter 2 gives us three distinct images of appearances.

Yesterday, we looked at Hannah and how she presents the Lord in this song of praise as she turns from her bitterness and sadness and pouring her heart out to this song of praise as the Lord blesses her and her family. Today we're going to look at a different view of appearances and then tomorrow we'll take a third view from yet another appearance. In 1 Samuel chapter 2.

Today, right after we talked about how verses 1 through 10 really are this song of praise from Hannah. Right after this in 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 12, we get a totally different perspective of what's happening the very same time around the very same people. Verse 12 says, Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial.

They knew not the Lord. Now I had to do some research on this one and dig into this. You're welcome to do some as well.

As we look at the footnote and even the little side note here, we get this kind of definition of the sons of Belial. And forgive me if I pronounce that wrong, but I wanted to read from this section here what it says because this is interesting to me along this concept of appearances. It says the phrase sons of Belial is used throughout the King James Version of the Old Testament to describe people who rebelled against the Lord's teachings and social norms.

Eli's sons were given this label because of their sinful actions while serving as priests in the tabernacle. Their offenses included taking meat from the animal sacrifices and engaging in immoral acts with the women who came to worship at the tabernacle. Now my friends, this is an interesting label here and interesting how they present themselves in appearances.

What we see here is a willingness to sin while holding the appearance that they are worthy and serving in the temple. The tabernacle, right? This is a dangerous view indeed.

Something that's worth all of us noting. When it comes to keeping up appearances, why are we trying to appear the way that we do appear? As we see here with the sons of Eli, they wanted to present the appearance of worthiness, that everything was fine, while living a sinful life.

I think it's a lesson for each one of us who are trying to appear as though they are worthy while living sinful lives. We'll pick this up tomorrow with the third view of appearances as we continue this idea of what it's like to show up in our day-to-day lives, me and you. My friends, may we show up the way the Lord wants us to show up.

And may we want to show up that way as well. That's a thought that I need to keep stewing on as I try to draw a final conclusion there on the thoughts that I'm sharing. That's all for today my friends.

You and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.